How volunteering could help you get a job

Hey guys! In this article, I would like to talk about how volunteering experience could help you get a job.

But the following text comes from my previous experience as a volunteer and I think it could highly motivate you.Things discussed here are my personal beliefs and I am convinced that most of the business world share these values. Generally speaking, volunteering has much more benefits than allowing you to just get a job. I think I could write a book about it! You can make new friends, improve your mental health, even burn your stubborn body fat! Yeah seriously working hard on something makes you thinner!

But let’s get to the point now.

Here are main reasons why being a volunteer raises your chances of getting an actual job.

You gain new skills

During your volunteering journey, you are going to be asked to perform a bunch of tasks. In order to do this, you need to gain some new knowledge first. The depth of the knowledge you are about to take depends on your duties. If you really want to help your team and get assigned many tasks you are going to learn lots of things. Simple isn’t it? Also, the things you are going to learn to depend on the nature of the organization you are volunteering. For example, our Organizing Team here in Startup Weekend Kavala used some certain software and applications in order to carry out the whole event. This software is also used by a certain amount of corporations. As you can see we gained an advantage because we know how to use this software now. We have also learned how to make some basic graphics, how to write an article (like this one), how to approach new people, how to manage our relationships in the working environment and how to be consistent. The above things can only be conquered by the implementation. You cannot read a book and be communicative for example or speak in public effectively. You need to adopt the “learning by doing” technique on such topics.

You can show off your pre-existing skills

If you have some special abilities you need to promote them. But when you are in the entry level no one has enough trust on you to assign you anything. People are not going to pay you just because you write in your CV that you are good at Six Sigma or Photoshop. You need to prove this. And the best way to do that is by volunteering. Also when you collaborate with new people you can also promote some particular aspects of your character. You can show people that you are trustworthy,creative, quick learner, initiative and all good things related to you. But be careful because bad things could also come into surface! Do not promise people things you can not carry out and try to have a good relationship with your partners.

You are able to build a (professional) network

When you get involved in things like that you come across with various people. Some particular tasks have more than one teams in charge and most of the times you are going to need a piece of advice in order to perform them. So you have to communicate, on a regular basis, with other professionals or teammates.This is a great opportunity to cultivate your relationships with these people and build a community. That particular fact can be extremely beneficial for your career. Some people consider connections as the most important aspect of someone’s career. Well, in my opinion, other things also matter, like a person’s skills for example, but your network is also really important!

You become more confident

Your energy speaks for you before you even say a single word! If you feel scared and you shiver every time you have to speak in public you are not very attractive as a person. Managers do not intend to judge you about this. But they want to make their products and services more likable to people in order to boost their sales. And having such an image does not serve that purpose at all! Cultivating your image is a skill. And you can grow that skill by practice. Young people (like me and you) are not experienced enough to promote a perfect presence most of the times. So taking part in such actions and performing even the simplest tasks, such as serving some food, for example, can make you more confident and hireable! In the end of such an action, you get rewarded and your brain feels good about this. So your confidence level raises up automatically!

It is just basic psychology. 🙂

That’s all for now. As you can see volunteering is crucial for your career. In some countries being a volunteer is such a common fact, that is almost compulsory. And of course, people in these places are far more hireable!